Ex-UCI professor pleads not guilty in OC arsons

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former University of California, Irvine professor has pleaded not guilty to charges he set a series of fires at his son's high school and elsewhere after the boy committed suicide.

City News Service reports that 49-year-old Rainer Reinscheid (RINE-SHYED) entered the pleas Tuesday to nine arson-related felonies and a misdemeanor count of resisting an officer.

Prosecutors say Reinscheid set the fires at University High School, an administrator's home and a park. Authorities believe he was upset because his son hanged himself after being disciplined for theft from a school store.

Police also seized emails where Reinscheid expressed fantasies of attacking students and administrators, but no charges were filed for those.